How to REALLY Prevent Rape

It’s time to flip the script

Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash

When I was in college, our campus police department distributed a list of rape prevention tips to female students. The tips were ostensibly tips for general safety but were packaged with a nice big dollop of sexism. They included items such:

• “Women often sit in their car and update their checkbooks after doing their shopping. Leave your checkbook in your purse and immediately lock your doors when you get into your car.”
• “When walking at night, don’t be distracted. Put down your compact and lipstick and stay aware of your surroundings.”
• “Be cautious on a first date. Consider going out with mutual friends rather than one-on-one.”

Ridicule quickly descended upon the department. Not only was the advice fairly ineffective, but it portrayed women as dimwitted morons who wandered around in a perpetual state of distraction.

It also ignored the fact that many women regularly practice these safety techniques. The list came off as mansplaining the very things that women already realized they had to do.

The biggest problem was that many of the tips, such as the advice to avoid having anything “girly” in your vehicle or wearing “flashy clothing,” encouraged women to lead a minimal, boring life just to ward off…